Gov. Janet Napolitano and her two challengers will face each other on campus next week for the election’s only gubernatorial debate in Southern Arizona.

Napolitano, a Democrat, is attempting to beat out Len Munsil, a Republican, and Barry Hess, a Libertarian, to keep her seat for a second term. Recent polls have shown Napolitano leading by about 10 percentage points.

The event is organized by the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and will be televised live by KUAT-TV, said Matthew Boepple, an Associated Students’ Association director who helped with the planning.

“”It was a lot of hard work, but we put it together,”” said Boepple, a political science sophomore.

Hess, who ran against Napolitano four years ago, said he hopes the debate will allow the public to get a fair glimpse of the candidates’ records.

“”It really gives us an opportunity to see what the governor has done,”” he said. “”It’s been a disaster for the state and a lot of hollow promises.””

Hess said he will speak on the need for reform in public education, something he argues the other two parties are afraid to change.

“”We want to save the people; they want to save the boat,”” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Napolitano campaign confirmed that it’s currently the only Southern Arizona debate scheduled for her but didn’t discuss the event further.

Munsil’s campaign office did not return phone calls by press time.

The debate will be moderated by Bill Buckmaster, anchor for KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated; Ann Brown, the Arizona Daily Star editorial page editor; Mark Kimble, associate editor of the Tucson Citizen; and Celeste González de Bustamante, an assistant professor in the journalism department.

Peter Michaels, KUAT-TV news director, said the station will feed the debate to National Public Radio stations in Flagstaff and Phoenix. He plans to send a copy to C-SPAN per ASUA’s request.

Boepple said ASUA is providing most of the funding, but he wasn’t sure of the final figure because they are still buying ads for the event.

The event will be open to the public and start at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the South Ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center. Doors will close at 6:45 p.m., Boepple said.